History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 50

Author: Smith, Robert Walter
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins
Number of Pages: 790

USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania > Part 50

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Some of the warrants and patents for the tracts of land, which have already been mentioned, are dated as early as 1773; still they were not rapidly or densely settled for many years, not, in fact, until after the second decade of this century. Among the inducements to settle on them, offered by their owners, were the following, which appear in the advertisement of Robert Smith, published in the first number of the first volume of the Western Eagle, which, it will be borne in mind, was the first paper printed in this county, dated September 20, 1810, in which he offered for sale his 400-acre tract called "Smithfield," and the adjoining tract of Rachel Smith, situate on Roaring run, a mile from Rattling run, on which there was said to be a fall sufficient for a mill. He intimated that if encouragement should be given, a fulling-mill and a chemical laboratory "for refining dyes and col- ors would be provided by the proprietor of the land."

CHURCHES.

For many years after the first settlements, the nearest meeting-house was at Polk Run, in West- moreland county, and religious services were held in barns and private houses. The only Presby- terian church was organized in the spring of 1840. It is called the Boiling Spring Presbyterian church, because of the proximity of its edifice to a spring whose water, when the basin or reservoir is open and clear of earthy deposits, is forced a consider- able distance-hoils as it were-above the surface of the earth. The sand in the bed of this spring is white. The first church edifice, built jointly by the Presbyterian and Lutheran congregations, was a capacious frame structure, situated near Rattling run, about two and two-thirds miles a little east of south from the northern corner of the township, was erected soon after the organization of the church. Its several pastors have been Revs. Levi M. Graves, C. C. Bristol, J. E. Caruthers and Per- rin Baker, the present one. The first edifice was replaced by a new frame one in 1871. The mem- bership is 107 ; Sabbath-school scholars, 115.

The Boiling Spring Lutheran church has a capa- cious frame edifice situated a few rods west of the

Presbyterian church. Its membership is 54; Sab- bath-school scholars, 30.

The Maysville Lutheran church has an edifice which is frame and situated about seventy-five rods west of Maysville, near a western branch of Long run. Its membership is 38 ; Sabbath-school schol- ars, 77.

Both of these last-mentioned churches belong to the General Synod.

SCHOOLS.

The earliest schools were kept in rough log cab- ins, similar to those described in the general sketchi of the county. Some of them were not kept com- fortably warm in cold weather with ten-plate stoves. The teachers were old men who could not make a livelihood by manual labor. Their schol- arship was very limited. Occasionally one was a good penman and arithmetician. The school month consisted of twenty-four days. The tuition was $1.50 per quarter. Some of the scholars, who depended on themselves, attended school as long as their money would enable them to pay their tuition. Some such could attend only a month in a year. The first schoolhouse, built about 1810, was situated at or near the present site of Maysville, and soon afterward another one, about two miles southwest from the first one, near Flat run. There was another one, probably somewhat later, in the Jackson and Watson settlement, two or three miles east or southeast of Apollo, which was burned in 1817-18, and was replaced by a better one which was built by the conjoint efforts of William Watson, James Jackson, Jacob Miller, and some others, whose names the writer's inform- ant did not remember. Prior to 1822 a log school- house was built on the Benjamin Shirmer tract, called "Scara," patented by John and Thomas Penn to John Mifflin, October 5, 1774, descended to Rebecca Archer, who conveyed it to Nicholas Weitzell, April 26, 1814, from whom Robert Wray purchased it, March 13, 1819. It was one of the primitive kind of schoolhouses. Among the earli- est teachers, if not the earliest, who taught there, were James Craig and Samuel Scott. The num- ber of scholars ranged from fifteen to twenty. That house was situated about twenty rods from the present Shady Plain schoolhouse. The former also taught a school at his residence on the John Salter or "Ganges" tract, or what has been, since November 5, 1850, known as the Remalley farm, in Burrell township, distant about three miles from Shady Plain, which some of the children of Robert Wray and of others in his neighborhood attended. Craig also taught at times in an old dwelling-house on the "Scara" tract, on which, as

236

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

early as 1820, were the remains of a hunter's cabin. The free school system was readily adopted. Among its most devoted and persistent supporters was the late Joseph Shoemaker, who was for many years a school director, and a model one, so far as a prompt, cheerful and conscientious discharge of official duties was concerned. The old log school- houses, even of the second series and better class, have given place to comfortable frame ones, dis- tributed at convenient distances over the township.

In 1860 the number of schools (including those now in South Bend) was 15; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 11; female teach- ers, 4; average salaries of male teachers per month, $18; average salaries of female teachers per month, $18; male scholars, 428; female scholars, 335; average number attending school, 448; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 42 cents; amount tax levied for school purposes, $1,315.53; amount tax levied for building purposes, $886.02; from state appropriation, $191.27 ; from collectors, $1,630.70; cost of instruction, $1,080; fuel and contingencies, $192.75 ; cost of schoolhouses, building, purchasing, renting, repairing, etc., $498.22.

In 1876 the number of schools (exclusive of those now in South Bend township) was 13; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 9; female teachers, 4; average salaries males per month, $34.55; average salaries females per month, $32.50; male scholars, 253; female scholars, 223; average number attending school, 372; cost per month, $1; total amount of tax levied for school and building purposes, $2,587.15; received from state appropria- tion, $400.83; from taxes and other sources, $2,474.34; total receipts, $2,875.17; cost of school- houses, purchasing, renting, repairing, etc., $62.71; paid for teachers' wages, $2,309; paid for fuel, fees of collectors, etc., $486.66; total expenditures, $2,858.37.

The temperance element in this township has been for many years quite strong. At the election, Friday, February 28, 1873, the vote against grant- ing license to sell intoxicating liquors was 75, and in favor, 45.

The navigation of the Kiskiminetas was im- proved in 1811-12 by removing rocks and other obstacles as far up as the Packsaddle. It used to be dangerous boating over Big Falls, and several persons were drowned there. A dam at the foot of these falls makes the slackwater up to dam No. 3.

By act of March 26, 1821, the sum of $5,000 was appropriated for improving the navigation of the Kiskiminetas and Conemaugh rivers, and George

Mulholland, Jr., Peter Wallace, Andrew Boggs, John Hill and Jacob Drum were appointed com- missioners to superintend its expenditure.

MANUFACTURES.

The early assessment lists of Allegheny town- ship show that mills of different kinds were estab- lished within the present limits of Kiskiminetas township, thus: William Hess was assessed for the first time with a gristmill in 1810; Michael Ander- son, James Findley and Robert Watson with saw- mills in 1811; Benjamin Couch with a grist and saw mill in 1818; Jacob McCartney with a fulling- mill in 1820, a gristmill in 1826 and a factory in 1843; Isaac Townsend with a sawmill in 1824; James W. Biddle, William Kerr and William Un- capher each with a sawmill in 1826; John Fuller with a grist and saw mill in 1830; Joseph McGeury with a sawmill in 1831. Stitt's mill, on Carna- han's run, was for years after its erection re- sorted to by a large portion of the people of this township. Citizens volunteered to make a road on which they could go to that mill, the work on which was commenced at the mill and progressed homeward, and, as they reached their own abodes, would respectively drop off, so that those living at the greatest distances from the mill did most of the work.

There are now, as the writer is informed, one gristmill and two sawmills in this township, and most of the sawing is done by portable mills. The fulling or woolen mill of Cooker & Moore, near the head of the fourth western branch of Rattling run, was established in 18 -.

Raymond Deutzell was first assessed with a tan- yard in 1829, and John Keely in 1834. The same yard was probably assessed, in different years, to both Deutzell and Keely, as both were assessed with land granted by the commonwealth to Thos. Harper, whose administrators conveyed "twenty- five acres, including a tanyard," to Keely, so that it appears to have been the only one in this town- ship.

Rock Furnace was established by James W. Biddle in 1825, near the Big Falls, on the Kiski- minetas river, who announced in his advertisement for woodchoppers and other laborers, dated Octo- ber 5, that it would "be in blast on Christmas day." It was a steam cold blast furnace, eight feet across the bosh by thirty feet high. The fuel used was charcoal. The number of employés is said to have been from fifty to seventy-five. It was located on the Christopher Hays and John Henderson tract, between the mouth of Roaring run and its junction with Rattling run. It did

JOHN B. CHAMBERS.

MRS. JOHN B. CHAMBERS.

CAPT. JOHN B. CHAMBERS.

James Chambers, grandfather of the subject of our sketch, was a native of Ireland, hut emigrated to America and settled in Chambers- burg, Pennsylvania, at a very early day. He married a Miss Hutch- inson, by whom he had two children-William and Jane, the latter of whom hecame the wife of Judge James Bovard, of Butler county. Both are now deceased. After his marriage Mr. Chambers removed to Westmoreland county, where he lived until his death, which took place in 1848. He was taken prisoner at Sewickley sometime during the period of the Indian war, and taken to an island in Lake Erie, near Sandusky Bay, where he was kept until the close of the war and the declaration of peace. He then returned to Westmoreland county, where he had erected a log cabin upon his 700-acre tract of land, He began immediately to improve this land, but the Indians again became quite troublesome, and he and his young wife with the few other settlers were occasionally compelled to flee for safety to the blockhouse near by. Once a skulking band of savages stole Mr Chambers' horses from the field, and detecting them in the act, the old pioneer lifted his voice in a series of stentorian shouts which at- tracted the attention of some soldiers in the neighborhood of the forts, nearly two miles away, who assisted him in recapturing the horses. The Chambers cabin, one of the genuine pioneer style, with puncheon floor, bark roof, etc., was the first built iu the neighbor- hood, there being for two or three years no other within five miles of it. Mr. Chambers' land upon his death fell into the possession of his children, and is now owned by his grandchildren, the Chambers family having lived on and about this old place ever since James Chambers' settlement. The tract was improved by its industrious first owner, under many difficulties and amidst many hardships. He was obliged to pack salt and bar-iron, and various other articles which he needed, across the mountains upon horses ; to use a wooden plow and other primitive tools, and his wife did all of her cooking upon an iron crane which was swung in the great fireplace.

William Chambers, the father of John B., was born in 1777, in West- moreland county, and married Fannie Bovard, who was a native of the same county, born in 1787, and like himself of Irish descent. He died in 1851 and she in 1864. Eight children were the issue of their union, four of whom are now living-Mary, James, John B, and

William. The names of those deceased are-Jane, Margaret, Hutch- insou and Nancy.

John B. Chambers, to whom this sketch is chiefly devoted, was born in Westmoreland county, June 13, 1813. He remained at home until he was twenty-three years of age, and on May 6, 1837, married Martha Guthrie, a native of Westmoreland county, where she was born August 27, 1811. Her father, William Guthrie, was of Scotch- Irish parentage. He was twice married. By his first wife, a Miss Nancy Dixon, he had five children-Samuel, Jane, Esther, Martha and Susan, all of whom are deceased. Mrs. Chambers is one of the children of the second marriage, and had three sisters-Nancy, Mary Jane and Sarah, Her mother's maiden name was Mary Hill.

The offspring of the union of John B, and Martha (Guthrie) Cham- bers was four children, three sons and one daughter, whose names with their dates of birth are as follows : James H., born May 21, 1838 ; Samuel H., June 14, 1840; William G., December 15, 1842; and Mary Jane (now the wife of D. A. Heck, of Butler, Pennsylvania), born January 20, 1844.

Mr. Chambers carried on farming for ten years after his marriage, and then removed to Apollo, where he engaged in building a freight and passenger boat, which he named the " Apollo Packet," and run on the Pennsylvania canal, between Apollo and Pittsburgh, After following this business for several years, he purchased a stock of goods and has since been engaged in merchandizing, in which occu- pation he has deservedly been very successful. During eighteen years of his mercantile life, he was freight and ticket agent at the Apollo station, for the West Peun. Branch Railroad Company, and at the same time was express agent. He still holds the latter agency. Upon the organization of the Apollo Savings Bank, May 29, 1871, he was elected president of the institution, a position which he has ever since occupied. He is the possessor of abont 300 acres of real estate, and has a coal bank in successful operation, from which he supplies in part the town of Apollo. His varied business interests have been well managed, and the people have apparently ever had perfect con- fidence in Captain Chambers' judgment and sagacity. Both as the successful business man, and the practical, useful and public spirited citizen, he enjoys the respect of all with whom he has come in contact.

237

KISKIMINETAS TOWNSHIP.

not prove to be a pecuniary success either to its first or subsequent owners. It was finally sold by the sheriff, and the writer was, for the first time after his admission to the bar of this county, ap- pointed an anditor to distribute the proceeds of sale among the lien creditors. That was the first and last furnace for the manufacture of pig iron L in this township.

Eight different saltworks appear to have been assessed from 1836 till 1845, respectively, to Robert F. Stewart (2), John Laughlin, Bridget Trux, Wm. H. Richardson & Co. (2), John Johnston, H. Ridenour, J. Mccauley and McCauley & Gamble. Those owned by Gamble & Son, about a hundred rods below the mouth of Flat run, are the only ones that still continue to be operated. The mode and expense of drilling the wells and manufacturing the salt need not here be repeated. The barrels in which the salt was put up were at first brought to the wells on pack horses, and, after being filled with salt, were chiefly transported to Pittsburgh down the Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers in canoes and flatboats. Considerable quantities were sent to Clarion and Jefferson counties by sled and wagons. Those modes of transportation of course ceased after the completion of the Penn- sylvania canal, which also increased the activity in various other branches of business.

The general, the almost universal, occupation of the people of this township has, from its earliest settlement, been agricultural. As to those engaged in other occupations the assessment list this year shows, exclusive of Maysville : Laborers, 68; car- penters, 9 ; miners, 15 ; teachers, 6 ; blacksmiths, 4; shoemakers, 2 ; salt-boiler, 1 ; miller, 1; cigar manufacturer, 1 ; professor, 1.

Maysville assessment list for 1876 : Laborers, 4; merchants, 3 ; farmers, 4; carpenters, 2; shoe- makers, 1; blacksmith, 1; miner, 1. This little town is situated on Long Run, two and a half miles in an air-line northeast from its mouth, containing, according to its list of taxables, a population of about 72, and the Long Run postoffice.

The population of the township has been, since its organization, including that of Maysville, thus: 2,287 in 1840; 2,215 white, I5 colored, in 1850; 2,080 white, in 1860, after a part of Burrell town- ship had been taken from it; 1,716 white, 12 · colored, after a part of South Bend township had been taken from it. Its present number of taxa- bles, including those of Maysville, is 436, making its present population 2,005. { 1

Until 1824 the nearest postoffices were those at Freeport and Kittanning. The Kiskiminetas post- office was established February 24, 1824, John

Royer, first postmaster ; Spring Church postoffice, February 16, 1852, Robert M. Beatty, first post- master; Long Run postoffice, October 20, 1857, Samuel Orr, first postmaster; Shady Plain post- office, March 2, 1868, David D. P. Alexander, first postmaster.

AN ANCIENT LANDMARK.

In 1862-3 Samuel Lack cut down a white-oak tree on the farm of widow Coulter, near a small run that empties into the Kiskiminetas about fifteen rods above the gravel bar, whose diameter was three and a half feet. In sawing and splitting the trunk for barrel-heads, he discovered a blaze which appears to have been made with the bit of an ax, when the diameter of the tree was ten inches. Between the blaze and the bark were 246 rings or annual growths.

Some of the early settlers, as the writer is in- formed by one* of their descendants, in the vicini- ty of the lower parts of Long run and Flat run, opposite the Townsend settlement, between 1790 and 1800, were Michael Anderson, George King, George Waltenbaugh and Jacob Wolf. There were probably others in that region then, but that informant distinctly remembers the names of those mentioned, as having been mentioned by his grand- father and grandmother, Jacob and Christina Wolf, in relating this occurrence : Mrs. Wolf went ont early one morning to hunt her cows. She and her dog took position on a large flat rock, where she stood watching and listening for her cows, un- til the dog moved and whined at her feet, which caused her to look down, when, with extreme hor- ror, she beheld a vast number of black snakes, rattlesnakes, copperheads, and almost every other kind of serpent, lying in piles along the edge of the rock, attracted thither, probably, by her and the dog's presence. She took in her situation at a glance, and, in a moment, observing where there was the least number of her besiegers, she sprang over them from the rock, the dog soon following suit, hastened home, and, horror-stricken, related to her husband what had happened, who, with the other men above-mentioned, repaired to that rock and began to kill the snakes, and continued doing so until they were driven away by an unendurable odor. Mrs. Wolf said that none of the serpents offered to harm either herself or the dog until she attempted to escape, which she did unharmed.

GEOLOGICAL.

Two and three-fourths miles below Apollo was obtained the following section :

"Shale, etc .: Shale, 14 feet ; black slate, 2 feet ;

* Noan C. Wolf.

238

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

upper Freeport coal, 2 feet 10 inches (61 feet above lower Freeport coal) ; shale, etc., no exposures, 14 feet ; olive ferriferons shales and sandstone, 20 to 25 feet ; sandstone, 18 feet ; coal, 1} inches ; shale, a few inches ; sandstone, 5 feet ; lower Freeport coal, bituminous slate, 2 feet-10 feet above slack water."

It is divided at a short distance from this point into two members by 1} feet shale. The coal is highly pyritous, and a little further on, up the river, appears thus : "Coal in thin flakes, 1} inches; gray shale, 1} inches ; pyritous coal, 26 inches ; shale, 4 feet."

Below Apollo the following section was leveled : " Greenish and brown sandstone and slate, hill- tops, 21 feet ; olive slate, 18 feet ; interval, 67 feet ; terrace interval, 45 feet. Green sandstone : green sandstone, 13 feet ; olive green slate, 36 feet ; lime- stone fragments, grayish blue, non-fossiliferous, from 12 to 13 inches in diameter ; olive slates, 30 feet ; blue slate, here and there containing bivalve and flat spiral shells, resembling those of the black limestone strata, 35 feet below ; yellow slaty sand- stone, 6 feet ; bright yellow shale, 83 feet ; green shale, 4 feet ; green fossiliferous argillaceous lime- stone, 19 inches ; clay and shale, 11 feet ; light- colored shale, 5 feet ; blue shale, 16 feet ; blue slate, 6 feet ; blue fossiliferous slate, 2 feet ; dark blue limestone, nodular, 4 inches ; compact, full of encrinites and univalve and bivalve shells, 4 inches ; blne ferriferous fossil slates, 4 feet ; brown sandstone, vegetable impressions, 3 feet ; shales, ferriferons above, bituminous below, almost coal for 6 inches, 17 feet ; sandstone, thin bedded, 7 feet ; massive, 8 feet ; slaty, 4 feet ; shale, gréen- ish, 12 feet ; olive, 11} feet ; upper Freeport coal, 2 feet at ontcrop, 15 inches where driven in; in- terval, 11 feet ; Freeport limestone, nodular, 12 inches ; shale, 12 (?) feet ; sandstone, gray, 15} feet ; brown shale, 17 feet ; black slate, 2 feet ; lower Freeport coal, 4 feet-16} feet above bed of river."

Fragments of the so-called Freeport limestone were burned for lime without success.

Three-fourths of a mile above Apollo the Free- port limestone, 72 feet exposed, is quarried on the north side of the canal, 57 feet above the water level, pale in color and highly silicious. The coal is not seen.

Below the four mile slackwater dam are several coal openings, one of them upon the Kittanning coal hed, 33 feet thick. The strata rise rapidly west. Just below the dam, three miles above Apollo, the following section was obtained, in which, for the first time in ascending the Kiski- minetas, the Kittanning coal appears : .

"Hill top more than 100 feet above, 8 feet of sandstone roofing Upper Freeport coal and Free- port limestone. Interval hence downward roughly estimated at 230 feet to the ferriferous limestone, 33 feet exposed, elsewhere, 7 feet ; brown shale, 30 feet ; sandstone, 2 feet ; greenish shale, 12 feet ; gray, slaty sandstone, 5 feet ; iron ore, 5 inches ; shale, silicious, 7 inches ; iron ore, 3 inches ; shale, 5 feet ; iron ore, 2 inches ; shale, I foot; argil- laceous sandstone, 10 inches ; iron ore, nodular, 5 inches ; black slate, 3 feet ; blue slate, 7 feet ; Brookville (?) coal, 12 inches ; blue shale, 4 feet ; black slate, 18 inches, exposed at water level."

The third axis-anti-clinal of the fourth basin- crosses, perhaps, one mile higher up above the dam. The ferriferous limestone at Johnston's salt works is 55 feet above slackwater, 7 feet thick, and contains several species of fossil shells, a terebra- tula, etc.

The following section was obtained two miles above the dam :

" From the top of the hill downward, including 10 feet of shale just above the coal, 138 feet esti- mated: Elk Lick (?) coal, 5 feet ; interval, 42 feet ; massive (Mahoning ?) sandstone, 20 to 25 feet (bottom 115.7 feet above Kittanning coal). (Free- port limestone not observed here, but a short dis- tance up the river seen under Mahoning sand- stone, 3 feet thick.) Sandstone, thickly stratified, 773 feet ; slate, etc., 6 feet ; shale, 29 feet ; Kit- tanning coal, 3 feet 9 inches ; shale (?), 18 feet ; sandstone, 7 feet ; shale, 8} feet ; ferriferous lime- stone, 63 feet ; sandstone, 12 inches ; iron ore, cal- careous, fossiliferons, hard, 6 inches ; blue shale, 10 feet ; Clarion coal, 1 foot ; blue shale, 12 inches ; light yellow shale, 18 inches ; coal, 16 inches, 17 feet above water."

It is remarkable that the lower coal bed dips so steeply into the hill that it cannot be drained by the gangway, while the upper coal is not at all open to the inconvenience. This excess of dip characterizes the lower strata in the hill.

The ferriferous limestone goes under the river bed near the salt company's store, the Kittanning coal being at the level of the towpath. The out- crop of the upper coal is observed rapidly descending east up the river. Below the upper dam the Free- port limestone is seen, 7 feet thick ; and again, just below the dam and nearly on a level with the towpath, where it is thin and nodular; the Upper Freeport coal being absent or easily over- looked.

The middle of the third subtrongh of the third basin crosses this upper slackwater (3 miles long) at about the middle of its length, and exhibits a

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 50

Author: Smith, Robert Walter Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins Number of Pages: 790

Author: Smith, Robert Walter
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins
Number of Pages: 790